Eating 20% less of TDEE

lisadoe71

I have read a lot about how well this works and started it this week. (I will weigh in tomorrow) My question is this...If you calculate your TDEE using "light exercise - 1-3 times a week" you would NOT add back any exercise calories if you did not go over the 3 days of workouts right? I am an office nurse, so any actual exercise I get is outside of work. My exercise routine varies and to be honest, I am not always very consistant. Some weeks I may exercise (walk, play tennis, dance wii, or turbo jam video) only once or twice, but others maybe 5-6. I calculated for both "sedendary" and "light exercise" and am shooting for somewhere in the middle which is anywhere from 1900 - 2100 calories. So, I would not add back any exercise calories unless I exceeded 3 per week right? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

FYI - I started MFP the end of January this year and have lost 27 pounds so far and have 100 more to lose. Up until now I have just let MFP calculate my calories (around 1700 to lose 1.5 a week) Of course like most, I am not perfect all the time, but so far feel much LESS deprived eating 20% less than my TDEE.

jzammetti

I would say do not eat back exercise calories at all - if after 4 weeks you see an issue (losing too much or not enough) you may actually be moderately active on average instead of lightly active. It is all trial and error (and 4 weeks testing is just right to see results either way). I'm guessing with an active job you are either lightly or moderately active and definitely NOT sedentary.